Disney’s Harsh New Reality: Costly Film Flops, Creative Struggles and a Shrinking Global Box Office

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Of all the impressive skills Barbie has amassed in her 64 years as a working doll, who knew that cartography would be a focal point of her highly anticipated summer movie debut? But here we are. Trailers for the upcoming “Barbie,” from director Greta Gerwig and Warner Bros. Pictures, have led to the dissemination of a controversial map used in the film – one depicted in a scene with stars Margot Robbie and Kate McKinnon (known in the film as “Weird Barbie”) — and the studio is speaking up after days of international headlines. “The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing,” a spokesperson for the Warner Bros. Film Group told Variety. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the ‘real world.’ It was not intended to make any type of statement.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor Amplify Pictures, the independent television studio behind HBO’s Emmy-winning “100 Foot Wave,” has made a pair of hires. It has tapped Rachel Eggebeen as its chief content officer and Colin King Miller as its chief operating officer. The veteran executives will take founding partnership roles alongside Amplify Pictures CEO Joe Lewis. “It’s a time of expansion,” Lewis told Variety in an interview. “We’re growing our team and becoming more global.” At the same time, Amplify has sold a minority stake to Great Mountain Partners. The sale values Amplify at $50 million. The funding will be used to back more production of original series of both the unscripted and scripted variety. Great Mountain Partners previous investments include the Oscar-winning film studio A24, branded content producer Rise Studios and the Vuelta Group, a European film studio.   

The husband of Fiona Phillips has opened up about his wife's condition, a year after her devastating diagnosis. Martin Frizell has shared an update after Fiona was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Across Britain, there are hundreds of beautiful towns and villages that are perfect for a staycation this summer - but there is one 'underrated' village to visit if you are on a budget.

Gogglebox stars Dave and Shirley Griffiths were left fuming after their holiday in Spain turned into a 'shambles'.

North Lanarkshire Council has welcomed the approval of the next stage of exciting plans to replace University Hospital Monklands with a new landmark facility.

An eight-year-old schoolgirl has died after a Land Rover ploughed into a primary school in London.

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Keke Palmer found love with Darius Jackson nearly two years before they welcomed their first child.

Skims tapped ‘90s icons Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra to star in a sexy new swim campaign.

How does nature mirror our emotions? Prime Video‘s “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” utilizes Australia’s well-known landscape to illustrate one person’s fascinating journey. Its story follows a young girl, Alice, struck by a tragic event — her adult life marred by equally dramatic circumstances.

Believe it or not, horror fans, but “The Conjuring” Universe is the genre’s most lucrative franchise ever. How profitable are we talking? $2.1 billion at the box office over eight films costing a mere $178 million to produce.

Since producing Todd Haynes’ Sundance-winning drama “Poison” in 1991, Christine Vachon has helped bring some of the most unique and memorable independent films to the big – and small screen.

After a nearly two-year wait, David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman‘s “Foundation” returns to Apple TV+ this month for its second season.

Johnny Depp isn’t against making a comeback at Disney.

Lindsey Shaw is revisiting a difficult time in her past.

The Nun’s back!

, but the best lip plumpers are a less invasive (and costly) alternative that still lets you achieve similar results.Lip plumpers are topical products that come in various forms—and formulas, all with slightly different effects. Traditional plumping products, for instance, involve applying a mild irritant that may cause a tingling sensation to give your lips a visible, temporary swelling effect, says makeup artist .

FX has released the first official trailer for the third and final season of its comedy “Reservation Dogs,” which will premiere on August 2.  The series follows the stories of Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) and Cheese (Lane Factor), four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma. Following the death of their dear friend Daniel, the Reservation Dogs “took to stealing, scheming and saving in order to fulfill his dream of getting to California.” The group embarks on a wild journey of self-discovery, rumors, revenge and healing.  The critically acclaimed series has accumulated honors as an AFI Television Program of the Year while winning two Independent Spirit Awards, a Gotham Award and Peabody Award. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Altered Innocence has picked up North American rights to Bertrand Mandico’s gory, transgressive fantasy movie “Conann,” which had its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and will soon be making its way to Locarno Film Festival. Kinology is handling world sales. The film will tour at film festivals throughout the fall and be released theatrically next year. Following different iterations of the ruthless Connan the Barbarian, the film also stars Elina Löwensohn in canine prosthetics as Rainer, Conann’s spiritual guide. In the film, guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, still has a muzzle, but here he is called Rainer, and has the breasts and the voice of a woman, wears a studded black leather jacket, and a flash camera fit for the paparazzi. Talking to us from the great beyond, he details the successive reincarnations of Conann the Barbarian, a bloodthirsty Amazon from ancient times.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer After a successful post-pandemic return in 2022, San Diego Comic-Con will hold a much quieter event for 2023, which runs from July 20-23. The ongoing writers strike and the looming threat of an actors strike — along with several focused fan events (like Star Wars Celebration and Tudum) — have contributed to several major players deciding to sit out this year’s convention, including Marvel, Lucasfilm, HBO, Universal, Sony and Netflix. But there are still some marquee panels that could delight the fans during the week (even if most panels are refraining from announcing whether any actors or writers will be attending). See the Comic-Con schedule below, which will be updated each day as more panels are announced. (All times Pacific Daylight.)

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor It’s a social media app that blends TikTok-esque user videos, mobile gaming and donations to charitable causes. Robert Weiss, a TV producer-turned-executive-turned digital entrepreneur, calls it Roar Social, and he’s spent the past three years fine-tuning the app experience that he has dubbbed “gamified giving.” Backed by $10 million in seed funding, Roar Social is set to launch beta form later this year on Apple’s App Store. Weiss has been nurturing the big idea behind Roar Social for more than 10 years. But it was during the hard early months of the pandemic, in August 2020, when he felt the time was right to dig in to developing an platform designed to bring one-swipe ease to making charitable donations via an entertaining digital media experience. The emergence of the TikTok video format changed everything.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Jess Search, a titan of the documentary world and co-founder of the U.K.-headquartered Doc Society, is stepping away after 18 years following a brain tumor diagnosis. The executive revealed her condition in a newsletter post sent to members on Thursday. “Today I am sharing that I’m currently under the care of a neurosurgeon because like 300,000 others every year around the world, I’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumour,” Search wrote. “I’m stepping back from Doc Society — after 18 years of nonstop creative collaboration, dedicated craft, joyous partying and fierce camaraderie.”

Donna Langley is set to take control of content and creative ops across NBCUniversal’s portfolio of brands, as TV chief Susan Rovner exits the company. The shakeup in leadership is the first major restructuring move made by Mike Cavanagh since he took over ousted Jeff Shell’s position atop the Comcast-owned media company. In a memo to staff Thursday, Cavanagh announced NBCUniversal will be reorganized into four key units: NBCUniversal Studio Group, led by Langley, NBCUniversal Media Group, run by chairman of TV and streaming Mark Lazarus, NBCU News Group, run by existing news boss Cesar Conde, and the Universal Destinations and Experiences Group headed up by parks boss Mark Woodbury.

Guy Lodge Film Critic It’s hard to watch “Empty Nets” and not think of “Luzzu,” the recent, poignant Sundance prizewinner from Malta: In both films, enterprising young men left in the lurch by a national financial crisis must resort to black-market fishing to, well, stay afloat. (All we need is a third film paddling in such forbidden waters to declare a new neo-realist trend.) In “Luzzu,” the protagonist was a lifelong fisherman passionate about his trade, while Behrooz Karamizade’s lean, engrossing, Iran-set debut centers on a handy novice merely looking to make a quick buck. In this economy, however, such differences prove immaterial. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, unless you’re coming from money: You’re otherwise all sinking below the surface.

McKinley Franklin editor Let’s-a-go: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is officially making its way to Peacock on Aug. 3, the streamer announced on Thursday. Fans will also get treated to bonus content when the blockbuster animated film arrives on Peacock, including behind-the-scenes interviews with the voice cast, an immersive video field guide and a lucrative “Peaches” lyrical video. Peacock $4.99/Month Buy Now

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Those who were hoping for “Succession”-style infighting following Silvio Berlusconi’s death may be disappointed. The will of Italy’s media-mogul and former prime minister – who died on June 12 at age 86 – was partly made public on Thursday. What emerged is that his eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio, will together continue to control his business empire estimated to be worth around $6.8 billion, according to Forbes. But, according to a statement issued by his five chilren, “No shareholder will exercise overall individual indirect control of Fininvest SpA previously exercised by their father.” Fininvest is the Berlusconi family holding company.

Salma Hayek is celebrating national bikini day and dropping jaws. On Wednesday, the 56-year-old shared an unbelievable photo in her bikini with her 25 million followers on Instagram.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard might be one of Hollywood’s most famous exes. A year ago, the pair made the world ride a rollercoaster of emotions during their riveting trial, which included scandalous revelations and unexpected twists that kept the media and fans on the edge of their seats.Their highly publicized legal battle took a dramatic turn in their lives and careers.

“Reservation Dogs.” Season 3’s trailer may mark the end of an era for Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s dry comedy, but based on the video, this last season also marks the start of something new for its central characters.Since its premiere in 2021, “Reservation Dogs” has always been about the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. The series started with Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) forgoing his friends’ plan to ditch the reservation after his persistent Spirit (Dallas Goldtooth) persuaded him to improve his home rather than abandon it.

Festival organisers have warned TRNSMT attendees to not 'chance their luck' if they are not of age to attend the three-day music fiesta this weekend.

Declan McKenna has returned with buoyant new single ‘Sympathy’, and teased details of his currently-unannounced third album. Check out the new track below, along with our interview with the Enfield-raised indie star.Following his second album, 2020’s ‘Zeros’ – which hit #2 in the UK Charts – the 24-year-old has shared ‘Sympathy’, the first preview of his forthcoming third LP.

Jamie Carragher has been called out for his silence on Steven Gerrard's move to Saudi Arabia by a boisterous Rio Ferdinand.

Die Hard feared that Bruce Willis had been killed in a botched stunt on set of the 1988 movie, accounts in a new book claim.According to an excerpt from The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, And Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings Of Carnage by author and Empire editor Nick de Semlyen, Willis narrowly missed landing on a safety air bag from a height in his first major stunt.The book, which is out in the US now and is released in the UK on August 24, is described as a “behind-the-scenes story of the action heroes who ruled 1980s and ’90s Hollywood”.In it, author de Semlyen recounts the worries on the set of what would become the film that launched Willis’s A-list career.For the scene, which was shot early in production in case Willis became incapacitated or worse – allowing time for a recast – the actor was required to hurl himself off a ledge and onto an airbag below as large bags of gasoline were detonated, unleashing a fireball behind him.“As he waited, rubbing his hands together and wearing only a pair of black trousers, a white firehose was looped around his bare midriff, a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun hung via a strap from his neck, and a viscous gel slathered over his exposed skin,’ Semlyen writes in his book.When Willis asked crew members what the gel was for, he said that he was told that was for preventing him from catching on fire.Willis recalled of the jump: “When I landed, everyone came running over to me and I thought they were going to say, ‘Great job! Attaboy!’ And what they were doing is seeing if I’m alive because I almost missed the bag.”Meanwhile, in other news, Willis was celebrated by his wife Emma Heming Willis and ex-wife Demi Moore with touching tributes recently on the first Father’s Day since

The Bay City Rollers are excited to announce a new member joining the iconic band.

Interpol have performed their second album ‘Antics’ in its entirety during a show in Paris. Check out photos, fan-shot footage and the setlist below.The New York trio were playing at the Philharmonie de Paris in the French capital last night (July 5) as part of Days Off 2023.To kick off the evening, Interpol ran through their acclaimed 2004 album in order – giving closer ‘A Time To Be So Small’ its first live outing since 2007.